YouTube Music is a premium streaming music service launched by YouTube. With a reach of one billion unique users monthly, YouTube Music gives you the power to connect with more fans worldwide. Even if you have your music videos already on YouTube, adding YouTube Music gives you broader distribution and access to an additional income stream.
Get maximum exposure for your music: YouTube Music gets your music in front of more than a billion users on YouTube. YouTube Music pairs your song with your album cover art (YouTube calls this an “Art Track”) and you earn money when those Art Tracks are streamed on YouTube. Art Tracks are available to both free and premium YouTube Music users.
Art Tracks and Topic Channels
An Art Track is an automatically-generated YouTube version of a sound recording. An Art Track consists of the sound recording, album art, and metadata of the recording (such as its title and artist name). To learn more, please see how YouTube describes an Art Track here.
Art Tracks will automatically be delivered to a YouTube Topic Channel. Topic Channels are automated by YouTube, and neither TuneCore nor the artist has access to edit anything about the channel, including video descriptions.
Artist information found on Topic Channels is typically pulled from Wikipedia and Musicbrainz, and TuneCore is unable to edit this information. YouTube has sole control over the page because it is automatic.
Go Live Time
It usually takes 1-2 weeks for content to go live on YouTube Music.
YouTube Music Territories (Where Music Sells)
YouTube Music is available in Australia, Austria, Bahrain, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Kuwait, Lebanon, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Oman, Philippines, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, Thailand, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, and the United States
How YouTube Music Sells Your Music
Does YouTube Music sell your music via?:
| DOWNLOADS | STREAMS |
|---|---|
| No | Yes |
YouTube Music sells your music via the creation of Art Tracks.
Pay Rate (How Much YouTube Music Pays You)
There are no up-front or annual subscription costs associated with distributing your release to YouTube Music (or any other store in our Social Platform catalog). Instead, TuneCore will retain 80% of all revenue generated through this platform.
Paid Streams:
When a subscriber streams your music, you get paid a proportionate share of YouTube Music's subscription revenue per month calculated on terms set out in TuneCore's blanket agreement with the store (this usually excludes streams during a subscriber's free trial). Payments will fluctuate each month, depending on the amount of subscription revenue generated and how often your music was streamed.
Please note: As part of their previously announced plan to merge Google Play with YouTube Music, as of March 2020 all content that has been, or will be, delivered to Google Play will also become available at no additional cost on YouTube Music.
TuneCore artists who have distributed their music to Google Play Music but prefer it not to be on YouTube Music can take down their music at any time.